Drought Monitor notes broader drought across areas of the South

Drier weather in the southwestern United States, western Great Plains, and Southeast led to drought conditions developing or worsening for parts of these regions.

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The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor notes: “Drier weather in the southwestern United States, western Great Plains, and Southeast led to drought conditions developing or worsening for parts of these regions this week. The northern Great Plains, western Great Lakes, the Northeast, and the Pacific Northwest saw significant precipitation this week, which led to improving drought conditions in parts of these regions.”

In the monitor’s South region, the update says, “rain fell primarily to the east of Interstate 35 in Texas and Oklahoma,” while “temperatures generally ranged from 2 to 6 degrees above normal, and some areas locally reached 8 degrees above normal.” That led to drought conditions staying the same or worsening in the two states.

In the monitor’s High Plains region, eastern parts of North Dakota and Kansas received. The update notes, “Most of the High Plains saw a warmer than normal week, with the warmest temperature anomalies (4 to 10 degrees above normal) taking place in western Nebraska and Kansas, the western Dakotas, and eastern Colorado and Wyoming. In eastern Colorado and western Kansas, drought worsened and expanded in some locations, as soil moisture continued to decrease and precipitation deficits on the short- and long-term continued to grow.”

In the West region, the update noted: “Improvements were made to drought conditions in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana where long-term precipitation deficits, soil moisture, and groundwater were improved the most. In north-central Montana, short- and long-term precipitation deficits mounted and soil moisture and streamflow decreased, leading to the expansion of exceptional drought.”

As of Nov. 16, the Drought Monitor said abnormal dryness/drought covered major portions of HRW producing states, including 64% of Texas (up 2.5 points), 77% of Oklahoma (unchanged), 97% of Colorado (up 2 points), nearly 31% of Kansas (up nearly 2 points), 69% of Nebraska (unchanged), 54% of South Dakota (unchanged) and all of Montana (unchanged).

USDA says approximately 44% of all U.S. winter wheat area was covered by some form of drought, up one point from the previous week.